Headlights blow out my camera

[Wetstuff]

My camera is pointed to a curve in my lane back into my property. It is the first time we have had a surprise guest (wrong house..) in years. They drove in with their brights on and it was as if a tactical nuke went off on the property. There was no automatic adjustment/compensation ...not only could I not 'read the license plate', but I could only tell the size/shape of the vehicle when it turned sideways in backing out.

Which begs the question: as I have simply plugged the cam into the NVR with the only adjustments I can see to use - are on the NVR ...do I need to use a POE switch and a laptop to set up the camera individually?

Thanks. Jim

 

[bp2008]

No camera I've ever had will adjust exposure quickly enough for that. The only way to improve the situation is to reduce the exposure time manually. Trouble is, this darkens the entire video frame. By the time you have a fast enough exposure to read a plate, the camera will not be able to see much else besides the plate and head/tail lights. So if you want a camera that can see past bright headlights and/or read license plates at night, you tend to require a second camera with the exposure tuned specifically for that purpose. And in most cases it needs to have very strong zoom if you want to read plates at a distance of more than 10 or 20 feet.

This video is a great example. Car Spinning Donuts On The Corner You can see that the car's headlights completely overwhelm the normal cameras when pointed straight at them, but the cameras tuned for license plate capture are able to see past them.

 

[Wetstuff]

Thanks, bp... Very similar to Donuts ...and I understand 'dialing down the iris' type move. The license reference was an exaggeration, as we are lead to imagine these systems can nearly type the DNA of passers-by.

I'd rather be able to watch the deer and fox wander the property ..and keep the iris dilated. This was a once-in-a-decade situation and we have other devices that alert us. One of the best is a buried sensor that can triggers when metal passes over. Its range is not what I'd like, but I have limited lines-of-sight.

I ordered a POE switch to hopefully get better resolutions overall from the camera by maybe a direct adjustment. We do not have cable out in the bush (<100mi as the crow flies from the White House) so most 'active' internet related items are a hardship. Thanks again for the reply. Cheers.

Jim